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Beginner looking for advice on open-source NAS hardware and OS for self-hosting (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 hours ago by to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Hey everyone! I'm completely new to self-hosting, but I've become convinced of its benefits and would like to get started in the near future. I'm still trying to figure out which hardware and software would be the best fit for my needs, so I'd really appreciate some advice.

What I'm looking for:

  • I live in the EU and want to move away from US-based and other non-EU cloud providers, which is one of the main reasons I'm interested in self-hosting.
  • I want to de-Google my digital life and replace services like Google Photos, Google Drive, and Google's contact and calendar syncing with self-hosted alternatives.
  • I'd like to automatically back up photos from my phone, sync files, contacts, and calendars, and access everything remotely.
  • I want to avoid proprietary operating systems and vendor-specific apps as much as reasonably possible, ideally relying on open-source software.
  • (Eventually, I'd also like to consider hosting my own email server, although I've heard that this comes with quite a few challenges. This isn't a priority for now.)
  • I don't want to become a Linux or server administration expert just to keep everything running.

A little more context:

  • Users: Just two people.
  • Workload: Mainly file storage and syncing, photo backups and management, contacts, and calendars. No video editing, media transcoding, or other particularly demanding tasks.
  • Budget: Around €500–800 for the NAS itself, excluding storage drives.
  • Hardware preference: I'd prefer a compact, reasonably power-efficient, ready-made NAS rather than building a full PC, mostly due to limited space.
  • Technical experience: I've been building my own PCs for almost 30 years and consider myself an advanced Windows user. However, my last real Linux experience was with Ubuntu about 20 years ago.
  • Internet connection: 250/40 Mbps DSL with a public (dynamic) IPv4 address and a FRITZ!Box 7590 router, which supports WireGuard VPN.

Here are my main questions:

  1. Which operating system would you recommend? I've been looking into TrueNAS Community Edition and OpenMediaVault, but I'm open to other suggestions. Ease of use, stability, and low maintenance are important to me.
  2. Would a prebuilt NAS be a good choice? I've been considering devices like the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus and TerraMaster F4-424 Pro. Can their proprietary operating systems be replaced with something open-source without losing important functionality, such as fan control, power management, or hardware monitoring? Are there particular models known to work especially well with TrueNAS or OpenMediaVault?
  3. How much hardware performance do I actually need? Given my relatively modest requirements, would something like an Intel N100 already be sufficient, or would it make sense to invest in a more powerful CPU and additional RAM for future flexibility?
  4. Which software stack would you recommend? I'm currently considering Nextcloud for files, contacts, and calendars, and possibly Immich for photos. I'd prefer solutions with reliable automatic syncing and open-source Android apps.
  5. What should I consider regarding backups and remote access? I'm planning to use WireGuard for remote access, but I'd be interested in recommendations for a simple, reliable backup strategy as well.

I'm happy to learn new things and follow technical guides, but I'd prefer a system that doesn't require constant tinkering once it's set up.

Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any suggestions or experiences you're willing to share!

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[–] 3 points 10 hours ago

While I get the desire to degoogle and only use open source, it’s a pretty tough journey with a relatively steep learning curve, depending on your technical skill and knowledge. I would suggest looking at the pre-made and keeping their proprietary software as your starting point. Get your docker apps going, with everything backed up and degoogled and your own personal cloud. Then in the future, you can just transfer the data to a more open version.

I use synology and have been really happy with it. Haven’t been so happy with them, trying to force the use of verified drives only, but they backed down. They have a lot of functionality built in and their modified version of Linux works well and offers a lot of the google type cloud functionality out of the box, I haven’t used terramaster or ugreen. My understanding is their software and particularly docker support is poorer, it that was a few years ago. You’ll find devolving is a process, so don’t feel a need to do it all at once.

Just moving from windows to Linux made impromenets for me in terms of connecting to my nas, as nags rather than samba was automatically an option. Synologynhas built in remote access for a bunch of apps through their dynamic dns services, with easy letsencrypt workflows with wizards. Wireguard allows similar access to any docker apps. However, I’ve found it useful to be able to log in and download files from computers not in my wireguard network.

If you have an old laptop, or PC you could start out using it instead of a dedicated nas, which is just a stripped down pc. You would then just put true as or media vault on it.

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